A New Mistake

Oh Shoot

"Okay, uhh, okay Varian, what do-wha- what, what do we know?" He paced back and forth in front of his desk, hand on chin.
"We know that the Sundrop and MoonStone were destroyed, after the whole Zhan Tiri thing, we- we umm, we know that I probably have the last piece left sitting on my desk hidden in my book, umm, we-"
Rudigger chirped beside him, and nodded his head towards the castle entrance to his lab when Varian turned to him.
"We know that, I should probably tell Rapunzel about this... Ah, I can't. Not yet."
Rudigger raised what would be an eyebrow at Varian, who stuttered through his defence.
"I can't tell her yet, because I-I uhh, I want to do more science on it. I want to do more experiments! I mean come on, it's ancient magic, who knows what could happen!" He span around arms open wide, and accidentally locked his eyes on the amber that grew in the Demanitus chamber; his lab. An image of his father encased in amber struck through him.
"I-I could accidentally destroy Corona... for real this time. Oh no Rudigger you're right, I need to tell Rapunzel."

He turned back to his desk, and picked up the little shard in his hand, and then something he wasn't expecting happened.
The Opal started glowing, and the tips of his gloves became encased in a black, something. The black grew until it had reached the end of his gloves, where it stopped.
"No, no, nononono! What is happening?! Why is it reacting, the rest of it was destroyed, and why is it only reacting now? Not earlier at the tower? Rudigger!? What do I do?!"
The little raccoon just stood watching his master panic, eating an apple.
"Oh some help you are!" He tried to take the gloves off, but it wasn't working. The small jewel piece had stuck itself onto the top of his glove, and was clearly content there. He tried to take it off, but it was too small for him to do, and using tweezers wasn't an idea that came to him during his panic.
"I-I-I- I have some of that armour, that Cass wore, on my gloves. Wh-wh-wha, what do I do?! He could feel his nose tingling with the promise of tears, but fought it off, ending with watered eyes, and no more.
Rudigger chirped again, and nodded to the castle entrance again.
"No are you out of your mind? I can't tell Rapunzel now! She'd think I'm trying to turn on her, or that I was working with Cass, or that I'm trying to take Corona back again, or any number of things! Rudigger we can't tell her. It could mean very bad things for us."

"VARIAN!"
"Oh shoot."

"Varian, hey! We haven't really talked much since the whole, Zhan Tiri thing and WHAT has happened to your hands!?" Rapunzel's eyes widened and she shook her own hands at Varians, clearly confused, and bit concerned.
"Oh, umm, well I was, inspired by, uh, Cass's armour, so I made some very durable gloves!"
"Cass's armour?"
"Yeah, it was unbreakable, remember? Since I work with chemicals and what not, figured it would be safer, you know?" He grinned awkwardly, and Rapunzel seemed to brush it off with a confused shoulder shrug.
"Are you still reading about the Sundrop and the Moonstone?" She peered over his shoulder, towards his desk and the open book.
"Oh, oh, uh, yes! I know I did a lot already but everything I know about the Sundrop is like, the incantations really, which is fine, but I don't know a lot about the, uh, the, the Moonstone. Would you happen to know anything? Just to uh, add it to my notes!" He held up some blank pieces of paper, as if trying to convince her.
"Varian, are you alright? You seem, off."
Varian was rubbing his neck, turned away from Rapunzel towards his desk, and Rudigger, who had a 'really?' look on his face.
"I can't..." He mumbled, seemingly towards the raccoon.
"You can't... what?" Rapunzel asked.
Varian jumped and turned back towards the princess, eyes wide, mouth pinched. "I can't... believe I haven't thought to check the library! Haha, you'd think with me almost living in a castle with a giant library, I'd have checked it, but nope! Aha silly me. I'll check later, I'm gonna try clean up in here first." He dropped the embarrassed, panicked look, facing towards the amber. "I'm, I'm, uhh, working on a solution to get rid of this amber. I'm not a huge fan of having it here." He looked down, eyes filled with regret. Then he perked up a bit again. "Fun fact: without the black rocks, it's just normal amber now, so it melts down but that's slow, and boring, so I'm working on something better."
"Oh, okay. That's good. Just be careful, I don't want you getting hurt in here."
"Me, hurt? Psh, you clearly don't know who or what you're messing with, alchemy is perfectly safe!" He waved an arm, before panic glinted in his eyes and he hid his hands behind his back.

"Alright then." Rapunzel headed up the steps. "Oh, and my advice still stands. If you ever need to talk, I'll be there. I know you like to be alone, but I also know you've held yourself up in here for a week now. Maybe get some fresh air?" She left without his answer.

"Get some fresh air, yeah sure. Let's just walk into town with black armoured hands like Cassandra's, that's normal. Oh god what am I going to do?" He dropped his head into his cold hands, and felt his nose tingle again.
"No. No tears Varian. We'll get through this." He rubbed his nose with his forearm, and stood up straight.

***

He just finished making a new pair of normal gloves, slightly longer than the black that made half ways up his forearms. Slipping them on, he expected them to turn black but no, they stayed normal. He let out a breathe he didn't know he was holding as relief flooded him, and he flopped back down onto the floor of his lab, passing out from exhaustion.